What Do Special Education Paraprofessionals Do?
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Understanding the Role of Special Education Assistants
Paraprofessionals are the backbone of special education. Depending on where you live, their responsibilities can include:
- Acting as 1:1s for students with more significant academic, behavioral, or medical needs
- Acting as a shared professional in a general education setting, supporting multiple students with disabilities
- Acting as a shared professional in a special education classroom
- Toileting students
- Delivering direct instruction
- Supervising students at lunch or other unstructured times
- Providing behavioral expertise for students with behavioral needs
- Providing Medicaid reimbursable supports to students under the supervision of a speech and language pathologist or other service provider.
Some districts will have different classes of paraprofessionals based on their job duties and expertise—aka paying people who have to toilet students or handle significant behaviors more. Other districts have just one class of paras and everyone is expected to pitch in on everything.
Some districts employ many, many paras. Others employ far fewer. There is no federal rule on staffing ratios of paras. The broad guidelines are that they have to act under the supervision of a certified educator.
What Is The Role of a Paraeducator?
Why do some students get 1:1s?
There is no rule under IDEA about which students get a 1:1 or even what a 1:1 means. Wright’s Law has a guide on how to request a 1:1 that lays out some of the challenges. Schools can define a 1:1 as one adult who stays with a child all day, a different adult every block of the day who is with the child, someone who is with a child 100% of the day, or someone who is with the child during all academic times, but not lunch. So even once a student has a 1:1 there is often a lot of grey area in what that means. Can the adult work with other students at all? Are they supposed to be glued to the child’s elbow?
The law doesn’t have the answer to these questions. These are IEP team decisions– which means that it is really helpful to put in the IEP document exactly what is meant by the 1:1.
As for which students get a 1:1, there are no rules on that either. Typically, a 1:1 is for a student who is likely to be unsafe without tight supervision. That might mean a choking risk, a medical condition, or behaviors like running away or hitting that create a lack of safety. Often the behavioral issues can be addressed through shared paraprofessionals as well so the most common is because of medical issues. However, some districts tend to be tight on 1:1s and few students will have them– and in others a large percentage of students will have them.
Typically, a 1:1 is asked for by the parent. The district will try to counter with as limited one as possible because 1:1s are a staffing nightmare. It is hard to keep good paras– and a good para working with two kids is often better than two bad ones working with one kid.
Do paraprofessionals attend IEP meetings?
In most districts, the answer is no. There is no rule saying that they can’t. An IEP team can include anyone that the school or parent invites with specialized knowledge of the student. That can mean the paraprofessional. However, either because of financial issues (paraprofessionals are almost always paid hourly) or for reasons of habit, paraprofessionals are almost never included at IEPs.
Who supervises a paraeducator?
IDEA does not specify who supervises paraeducators. As a result, the answer is complicated. An occupational therapy or speech pathology assistant is supervised by that related service provider. A special education paraprofessional is, most typically, evaluated and formally supervised by an administrator, whether that is the head of special education at the school or the principal. However, on a day to day basis, it is often the special education teacher providing guidance and supervision to the paraprofessional. To make it even more complicated, some paraprofessional services are reimbursable under Medicaid if they are supervised by a certified related service provider. Those folks have monthly (ish) meetings with the related service provider as part of their supervision to insure that the school can get reimbursed for services.
So a paraprofessional can be supervised on a day to day basis by a special educator or related service provider but their formal evaluations are most likely done by an administrator.
If you think it is confusing, so do many, many paraprofessionals.
How are paraprofessionals written into the IEP?
Paraprofessionals are often listed as a supplementary aide and service, with specific hours given in the IEP.
How does IDEA define supplementary aides and services?
(4) A statement of the special education and related services and supplementary aids and services, based on peer-reviewed research to the extent practicable, to be provided to the child, or on behalf of the child, and a statement of the program modifications or supports for school personnel that will be provided to enable the child—
(i) To advance appropriately toward attaining the annual goals;
(ii) To be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum in accordance with paragraph (a)(1) of this section, and to participate in extracurricular and other nonacademic activities; and
(iii) To be educated and participate with other children with disabilities and nondisabled children in the activities described in this section;
